Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Last night, I was able to help out at the 12th annual Chef's Feast, organized by Peninsula Grill's Chef Bob Carter. The event raises charity money for the Lowcountry Food Bank. Around 1,000 people attended, wearing tuxes and cocktail dresses, and over 25 chefs were there to represent their restaurants.

Each chef had a little station where his team could put out a small plate, and the guests came up to the stations as they wanted. There were tables all over the auditorium for the guests to sit and dine.

Blake, Chef Ramon, myself, and Chef Lee

The four of us, plus Jeff, a cook from SNOB, represented High Cotton and Maverick Southern Kitchens.

What we cooked.

Needless to say, with that many guests attending, we stayed very busy, especially for the first hour.

Our plate.

I thought our plate turned out nicely. It tasted good, and lots of guests came back for more.

Ramon and David Marconi, one of MSK's owners.

We saw lots of friends and familiar faces all night long. Blake and I ran into tons of students and teachers from our respective culinary schools (she goes to Art Institute, I go to C.I.C.). Of course, there were lots of industry people there who we knew just from working in food and beverage in Charleston.

Me and Chef Stefanelli from school. Love him.

While we didn't taste every dish, it was definitely fun to taste what the different restaurants were putting out. Chef Stef's braised oxtail and polenta was delicious, and I also really liked the sauteed calamari in tomato sauce from the Wild Olive, the restaurant we were stationed next to. A couple cold beers at the end of the night (of course) helped wash it all down. Overall, it was a blast, and I was happy to step outside of my usual realm to participate in something so big and exciting.